Ansible Installation:

Create a working directory:

mkdir ansible_play
cd ansible_play

Create the following 4 files within the “ansible_play” directory:

ansible.cfg
hosts
secrets.yml
show_code.yml

Among the 4 files provided in this example, the “hosts” and “secrets.yml” file would have to be altered to suit your requirements. The other 2 files, “ansible.cfg” and “show_code.yml” can be used as-is.

The contents of the above files will be like this:

$ cat ansible.cfg

[defaults]
hostfile = ./hosts
host_key_checking=False
timeout = 5

For now, use the contents as provided above for the “ansible.cfg” file.

$ cat hosts

[ios]
switch1

The hosts file will have the switches/routers that you would like to use for running the ansible-playbook. In my case, I am using “switch1”. The 1st line “[ios]” is the name of the hosts that will be referenced in the ansible-playbook.